The criminals strip acres of vines bare and, overnight, take what can represent a year’s work for the farmer, which can mean financial ruin for the grower as agricultural insurance tends not to cover raw fruit.

Similar crimes have taken place in Germany and the US, and many believe the thieves are professionals working in the industry.

However, a French detective from a specialist scientific unit assigned to investigate said he feared “a wine mafia gang” was targeting “some of the best grapes”.

He added: “We are undoubtedly dealing with the kind of upmarket criminals who steal old master paintings and antiques to order.”

He even speculated that Russian organised crime could be behind the thefts.

One farmer in the Langudoc had his entire £13,000 crop stolen in a few hours.

Some 35 tonnes of Cabernet Sauvignon were stolen from Roland Cavaille’s vineyard near Villeneuve-les-Beziers, close to Beziers, in the south east of the country last weekend.

He said: “When I went out in the morning to check on the grapes, I couldn’t believe my eyes. There was nothing there.

"Those grapes were some of the best on the market,” he claimed. “I don’t know how I’m going to survive the year now that they’re gone.”

Similar crimes have taken place across the Languedoc-Roussillon, one of France’s major wine regions.

However, Marcel Orford Williams, Languedoc buyer for The Wine Society, said: “I’ve never heard of it quite like this. It’s obviously organised.”

In Germany, an entire hill of premium grapes was stolen on Tuesday night in Hamburg.

Thieves took between 80 and 90 per cent of the small crop destined to become this year’s “Stintfang Cuvée” just a day ahead of the traditional harvest.

Only a single basket of grapes remained of what normally becomes a wine kept exclusively for gifts to officials or high-profile visitors.

Fritz Currle, the vintner who has blended the relatively little-cultivated Regent and Phoenix grapes varieties for 15 years, said: “There’s nothing there.”

Last week, in eastern Washington State, 900kg of the Mourvedre grape – such as is used in Chateauneuf-du-Pape - was stolen from a vineyard in Benton County.

The Mourvedre bushes were picked clean of £23,000 of grapes but the Cabernet Sauvignon fruit nearby was left untouched.

Mr McBride, who is a partner at Grand Reve Vintners, said: “They were professionals. For somebody in the state to think “Gosh, I have just got to have that Bushvine Mourvedre” takes a real wine geek.”

Other products have also been targeted. Japanese fruit farmers in Ibaraki, north of Tokyo, have fallen victim to thieves who stole acres of luxury cherries worth £100 per pound and melons that sold for £55 each.

And it is not only human hands that the farmers have to guard against: birds, squirrels and even bears can be responsible for disappearing crops, while in South Africa, baboons caused so many problems for winemakers near Cape Town by feasting on the Sauvignon Blanc crop that “baboon monitors” had to be hired.